Charred Car Update
I just have to speak briefly about the charred car I started to tell you about the other day. Wednesday morning first thing I looked out my apartment window. I think I was going to open the window because it was still cool, and what did I see? A charred car. I'm telling you, I have never seen anything like it, and I hope I never see anything like it again. Actually, I really wish they would move it so I wouldn't have to see it anymore. It's been sitting there since Wednesday morning, and today is Monday.
People were standing in the street, say, two at a time, discussing this thing sitting there. Then a car would go by and slow down. Finally, curiosity got the best of me. First, I had to put some clothes on. I'm unemployed, remember? My neighbor said that somebody, a kid, possibly, threw something through the passenger window. This is supposed to be a fairly decent part of town. I also REALLY hate the fact that nobody has come to move it. It just sits there.
What's left of this car is the engine and the tires, according to the mechanic looking at the car, deciding, he said, whether or not to take the engine out. Now that's real nice. It's not his car. Why would he be there saying that in front of me, a total stranger? He's a friend of the guy who lives upstairs across from my apartment.
No, I'm not afraid he's going to do it to my car. It is not my car sitting charred in front of my apartment. Maybe he only takes things belonging to charred cars; there's always that possibility.
Charred car, abandoned car. Does not the city have laws against such things? Is it not enough that the apartment manager is leaving the place looking like crap? For example the little rock gardens or whatever you call them that are in front of the apartment, like mine, I presumed, to keep from having to do any landscaping -- you know, covering up the earth so supposedly nothing can grow that has to be trimmed or mowed -- anyway, so like TREES are growing up in them, and trees are growing up in front of people's windows where the bushes are supposed to be, and it's been YEARS since they did anything about it. But somebody's coming on Monday, the apartment manager assures me. However, Monday is here and nothing has been done. Meanwhile, the apartment owners raise the rent $10. They don't care what the place looks like. They live in Houston, for crying out loud, and obviously could not care less as long as they get their money.
Anything I can do about it? The other thing they did is, they stuck the hood or some other part of the car (I'm not very good about naming the parts of cars) sideways into the back window exposing the engine, at first. Well, it couldn't be the hood. It must have been the grill. Yeah, that's it. The hood was propped up with that stick the first day. They finally put that down. So you can just imagine the sight. This -- I thought it was black, like mine, but looking at it closer, I saw that it was dark blue, kind of metallic dark blue -- car sitting out there that was perfectly fine a few days ago and now, it's burnt up. It's blotched, it's grey and there's shattered glass all over the street and it looks like we live in -- I don't know, what's the most crime-ridden neighborhood you can think of?
I used to be a reporter, so I thought does the newspaper know about this? I thought about calling them, but then I didn't want all the idle teenagers in town to see it and think it was cool. Apparently everybody passing by thought it was. My next door neighbor told me people were shooting pictures of it night and day. Oh, whoop-de-do. How exciting. I told her, "Maybe the newspaper wouldn't think it was very interesting."
"Apparently, everybody else does," she said. The timing was perfect.
Oh, well, we are hungry for excitement, aren't we? Even when it's disgusting like somebody throwing a homemade bomb through a car window outside your apartment. By the way, it's supposedly there because the insurance company has not come to investigate it yet, thus bypassing any city ordinance about an abandoned vehicle. I guess.
What can anybody do about things like this? I mean without putting everybody else on a guilt trip, that is. Of course I care. I heard the sad story from the apartment manager about how "devastated" the girl was who had just bought the car. Since yesterday, I heard the owner had only been in Topeka two days before this happened. She moved here from California. So, does that mean her insurance guy has to come from California before we can get that car moved? I also heard that "somebody had threatened her," and, "I guess they followed through."
I also heard that you can make enemies with the wrong people in Topeka. He found that out right away, he said. OK...
I'm sure anyone who reads this can come up with a beautiful essay about the significance of this charred car. I invite you to do that. This was not supposed to be beautiful. Maybe some other time. It is an interesting topic for an essay, I think, though, don't you?
People were standing in the street, say, two at a time, discussing this thing sitting there. Then a car would go by and slow down. Finally, curiosity got the best of me. First, I had to put some clothes on. I'm unemployed, remember? My neighbor said that somebody, a kid, possibly, threw something through the passenger window. This is supposed to be a fairly decent part of town. I also REALLY hate the fact that nobody has come to move it. It just sits there.
What's left of this car is the engine and the tires, according to the mechanic looking at the car, deciding, he said, whether or not to take the engine out. Now that's real nice. It's not his car. Why would he be there saying that in front of me, a total stranger? He's a friend of the guy who lives upstairs across from my apartment.
No, I'm not afraid he's going to do it to my car. It is not my car sitting charred in front of my apartment. Maybe he only takes things belonging to charred cars; there's always that possibility.
Charred car, abandoned car. Does not the city have laws against such things? Is it not enough that the apartment manager is leaving the place looking like crap? For example the little rock gardens or whatever you call them that are in front of the apartment, like mine, I presumed, to keep from having to do any landscaping -- you know, covering up the earth so supposedly nothing can grow that has to be trimmed or mowed -- anyway, so like TREES are growing up in them, and trees are growing up in front of people's windows where the bushes are supposed to be, and it's been YEARS since they did anything about it. But somebody's coming on Monday, the apartment manager assures me. However, Monday is here and nothing has been done. Meanwhile, the apartment owners raise the rent $10. They don't care what the place looks like. They live in Houston, for crying out loud, and obviously could not care less as long as they get their money.
Anything I can do about it? The other thing they did is, they stuck the hood or some other part of the car (I'm not very good about naming the parts of cars) sideways into the back window exposing the engine, at first. Well, it couldn't be the hood. It must have been the grill. Yeah, that's it. The hood was propped up with that stick the first day. They finally put that down. So you can just imagine the sight. This -- I thought it was black, like mine, but looking at it closer, I saw that it was dark blue, kind of metallic dark blue -- car sitting out there that was perfectly fine a few days ago and now, it's burnt up. It's blotched, it's grey and there's shattered glass all over the street and it looks like we live in -- I don't know, what's the most crime-ridden neighborhood you can think of?
I used to be a reporter, so I thought does the newspaper know about this? I thought about calling them, but then I didn't want all the idle teenagers in town to see it and think it was cool. Apparently everybody passing by thought it was. My next door neighbor told me people were shooting pictures of it night and day. Oh, whoop-de-do. How exciting. I told her, "Maybe the newspaper wouldn't think it was very interesting."
"Apparently, everybody else does," she said. The timing was perfect.
Oh, well, we are hungry for excitement, aren't we? Even when it's disgusting like somebody throwing a homemade bomb through a car window outside your apartment. By the way, it's supposedly there because the insurance company has not come to investigate it yet, thus bypassing any city ordinance about an abandoned vehicle. I guess.
What can anybody do about things like this? I mean without putting everybody else on a guilt trip, that is. Of course I care. I heard the sad story from the apartment manager about how "devastated" the girl was who had just bought the car. Since yesterday, I heard the owner had only been in Topeka two days before this happened. She moved here from California. So, does that mean her insurance guy has to come from California before we can get that car moved? I also heard that "somebody had threatened her," and, "I guess they followed through."
I also heard that you can make enemies with the wrong people in Topeka. He found that out right away, he said. OK...
I'm sure anyone who reads this can come up with a beautiful essay about the significance of this charred car. I invite you to do that. This was not supposed to be beautiful. Maybe some other time. It is an interesting topic for an essay, I think, though, don't you?
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